Because we know our second semester is going to be more stressful than the first, and that we possibly wouldn’t have any other chance to enjoy carefree leisure afternoons, my law blockmates and I had a lunch and swimming / badminton party the day before registration and enrollment.

It was potluck lunch and I brought the rice. Others brought the usual pork barbecue, hotdogs, chicken pastel, softdrinks, graham cake, and chips. One of my blockmates prepared a special block awards program. It’s hilarious. After lunch, some of us went to play badminton. I had to leave ahead of everyone, though, because of some meetings in the afternoon.

Tags: law blockmates, UP Law

Right after having lunch at Tagaytay with my blockmates, we drove back to Manila in under two hours to get to Star City by six in the evening. We didn’t let Enchanted Kingdom’s being closed douse our excitement for rides.

For some of my blockmates, it was the first time they’ve been to Star City, while for me it was the second time this year. Because it was Tuesday evening, the theme park wasn’t too crowded and the lines not long, so we were able to try out some of the rides multiple times. My blockmates and I bought ride-all-you-can tickets so we took advantage of it by going through almost all of the rides, even to all of the horror houses. At the end of the night, we were professing to each other how much more fun Star City was than Enchanted Kingdom. As some of us say, [Block] B is for bitter.

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Tags: law blockmates, Pasay, rides, Star City, theme park

Some of my blockmates and I wanted to make most out of the last few days of the sembreak before the second semester starts so we decided to plan a trip to Enchanted Kingdom in Sta. Rosa, Laguna yesterday, November 4. Unfortunately, we did not foresee that the theme park was closed from Mondays to Wednesdays. We did not allow it to defeat our objective for the day, however. We spontaneously decided to drive to Tagaytay and then back to Manila to spend the rest of the night at Star City. It turned out to be a great spontaneous plan, definitely satisfying.

We left Diliman just before noon and arrived at Tagaytay around half-past one. On the way to Tagaytay, just to complete our frustration with Enchanted Kingdom, we had to pass by the place to really see for ourselves that it was indeed closed for the day. Anyway, when we got to Tagaytay, some of my blockmates were looking for bulalo, so for lunch we settled at this bulalo restaurant along the highway with a great view of Taal Lake and Taal Volcano.

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Tags: bulalo, Cavite, law blockmates, lunch, Taal, Tagaytay

Our final examinations in Constitutional Law 1 is divided into two parts. The first part is an oral exam, where we would be asked, individually, to answer a handful of random-picked questions by reciting, in verbatim as much as possible, the proper provision from the Constitution. That meant we had to memorize the entire Constitution. The second part of our final exam is a five-hour written test.

The oral part was set for today. When I got to school in time for the exam, I was secretly hoping by one way or another, I would get a few extra hours to study more. I’m a hopeless crammer like that. To my disbelief, after two hours of waiting for our professor, our class president announced that the professor forgot all about our oral exams today, or that he claims that there was a misunderstanding in the schedule. So we all agreed to have it re-set for tomorrow, together with the five-hour written exam.

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Tags: academics, Constitution, law blockmates, UP Law

I’m now struggling to memorize the constitution for our last final examinations this Thursday and Friday. I’m done with Persons & Family Relations (Civil Law), Legal Method (Statutory Construction), and Criminal Law 1. And for more, I even had to take a Political Science 14 final exam last Monday.

Last Saturday, my blockmates and I went out for lunch after our Criminal Law 1 final examinations. It was as if we didn’t have any more examinations left. Well, there were four days before the next one, so we thought it wouldn’t hurt if we would eat, drink and be merry for one afternoon.

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Tags: academics, law blockmates, UP Law

Allow me to be a monk for the next two weeks. I shall maintain a degree of separation from all those that will just distract me from my purpose. I shall turn off my cell phone for most of the day, unplug the wireless internet router, and just stay at home or at the library to study. My academic disposition is not very good, my midterm averages for some of my subjects are below 3.0, and as such, I have to take major and extra efforts to ace my exams and ultimately pass my subjects. Mastering hundreds of statutes, provisions, case doctrines and jurisprudence and many other rules and procedures, by reading through thousands of pages is daunting.

I’ve never felt so pressured to study for final exams. I never realized how fortunate I was as a high school and even an film student, when a night’s worth of studying, or even relying on stocked knowledge for a final exam would suffice. Ah, those were the days. I never knew how good it was till I stepped into Malcolm Hall.

I know I will laugh at this entry when I’m in my higher years in law school or when I’m about to take the bar, if I pass all the hurdles that is. How pathetic of me to rant like this for my first final exams in law school.

[The picture to your right is of my block's after our final lecture class with Ms. January Sanchez (2004 bar topnotcher), our professor in Legal Method last Saturday morning]

Tags: academics, law blockmates, UP Law

Our Constitutional Law 1 professor, who happens to be the Dean of the Ateneo School of Government, made us go to Bantayog ng Mga Bayani and Malacanang Palace last Tuesday, instead of holding our usual late afternoon class in UP to talk about extraordinary powers of the chief executive.

It was a good time to talk about the topic, since incidentally it was also the week of the 36th anniversary of Pres. Ferdinand Marcos’ imposition of Martial Law.

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Tags: law blockmates, Malacanang, Manila, Marcos, Martial Law, UP Law

For Constitutional Law 1 class, our professor made us replay in our own way the Supreme Court proceedings in Lambino vs. COMELEC. My blockmates and I took on different roles as Supreme Court Justices, petitioners and respondents. I was on the side of the Sigaw ng Bayan / People’s Initiative petitioners as Erico Aumentado. Some of us even took on the role of the Solicitor General and amicus curiae Joaquin Bernas.

A day before the moot court, we reserved the court room to get a feel of the proceedings the next day. The next day, we even wore robes in our “role-playing”.

It was pretty interesting being on the side of the petitioners defending the now-botched people’s initiative charter change petition of Sigaw ng Bayan, which was once one of the most heated socio-political issue in the country back in 2005, if I’m not mistaken. I was against it back then. Going through the case made me rethink the issue. I still feel largely against it, however, but only in as much as it was obviously a political maneuver during those days. In principle, I think charter change (though, we have to qualify what sort of change) and people’s initiative is a good idea.

Yesterday, we replayed the justices’ deliberations using our own arguments, and we invited Atty. Raul Lambino, himself, to witness it and talk about the petition. He’s one of our blockmate’s father, actually.

Tags: charter change, law blockmates, moot court, UP Law